Rajasthan State - Elections 2008 At A Glance | Who Will Win ? My View
Rajasthan State was formed as ‘Rajputana’ by merging many big and small feudral kingdoms such as Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Kota, Jhalawar, Matsya, Jaisalmer etc. Later on Siroi and Ajmer areas merged to form a larger state of Rajasthan.
After Independence, the state has undergone radical progress and development from various aspects as literacy rate, agriculture, power reforms and health factor. In last 60 years, the three chief ministers who really mattered for the developmental acceleration of the state are “Mr Mohan Lal Sukhadia”, “Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat” and “Madam Vasundra Raje”.
Though other chief ministers namely Mr Hiralal Shastri, Mr Venkatchari, Mr Teeka Ram Paliwal, Mr JaiNarayan Vyas, Mr Barkatulla Khan, Mr Shiv Charan Mathur, Mr Haridev Joshi, Mr Jagannath Pahadia, Mr Heera Lal Devpura and Mr Ashok Gehlot have also played a considerable part in bringing about changes in Rajasthan.
Rajasthan state had water scarcity as the major problem in the past and even today. The actual farmers were not the majority land owners as the kingdom owners owned the majority of land. It was Mr ML Sukhadia, who by his smart legislation helped the farmers gain ownership of the land they were cultivating. The state has shown rapid growth in transportation, irrigation and power sector.
By and large people were oppressed because of the very nature of feudalism in the past. Democracy was really never a part of their life till initial years of independence. The state of Rajasthan has mainly two national parties contesting the elections since a long time, they are Congress and Bhartiya Janta Party. Though small parties as Ram Rajya Parishad, Swatantra Party, Janta Dal and Lok Dal emerged, but could not win the voters confidence for staying long.
In last 60 years, the progress is commandable, still the state governments have failed to provide safe drinking water to the inhabitants.
In the last elections, Madam Vasundra Raje emerged victorious with comfortable majority against the popular belief of Congress doing a second term under the leadership of Mr Ashok Gehlot. Infact, parties loose and parties win, but they hardly analyze why after remaining in power for 5 yrs, do poorly inspite of claiming all things in their favor. The congress lost in the last elections may be due to lack of communication between the general public and the bureaucrats.
I would continue from here tomorrow and will analyze and present my views on various elections agendas for state assembly this year around.
